Quote:
Usually there is the program folder still there with nothing in it or some files.So I guess the question is, should I be concerned that stuff is still there or just forget about it and move on


Ah, that's simple, then. Delete the program folder. You don't need a special deinstaller or cleaner for that.

Here's why the folder is still there:

Installer and deinstaller programs are very careful about how they work. When you install a program, it keeps a careful log of everything that got changed during the installation process. When you deinstall, it uses that logfile as a guide, to delete only what it installed.

Now here's the tricky part. Let's say, for example, that you made a mistake when you installed the game. Suppose you chose to install it to "C:\Games" instead of "C:\Games\NameOfGame". Well, it would still work. But when you deinstall it, if it deleted the whole folder, it would also delete all your other games. So that's why the deinstallers are so careful to *only* remove what they installed, according to the log file.

So, what this means is... If the game has configuration files or savegames that are generated at play-time, they are not part of the installer's log file. So the deinstaller doesn't automatically remove them. The deinstaller doesn't know where they came from, so it doesn't know that they're part of the game, so it doesn't remove them.

The exception to this rule is when a company has the foresight to assign one of their programmers the task of writing a custom uninstaller. This is an extra DLL that's called by the uninstaller program, and it can be customized to prompt you: "Do you also want to remove your saved games and user profile?". This program then goes out and deletes the rest of the files in the game folder. And then you pray that the person coding it was smart enough to make sure it doesn't delete your entire c:\games folder...
_________________________
Tony Fabris